


it suits you

by oddlyqueer



Category: Frankenstein & Related Fandoms, Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Canon Era, Crossover, Found Family, Implied Sexual Content, Other, References to Suicide, Selectively Mute Victor Frankenstein, Trans Character, Trans Gabriel Utterson, Trans Male Character, Trans Victor Frankenstein, selective mutism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 23:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20143825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddlyqueer/pseuds/oddlyqueer
Summary: Dr. Henry Jekyll was considered very progressive for agreeing to let a daughter of the prestigious Frankenstein family study under him. Most thought he was doing it for the money. Jekyll was doing it because he was tired of living alone; he was ready, he thought, to teach someone and have someone under his care.—How Henry Jekyll became a husband and a father (or, how Victor Frankenstein became Victor Frankenstein)





	it suits you

**Author's Note:**

> tw for misgendering, references to mental illness and su*cide, and implied sexual content.

Dr. Henry Jekyll was considered very progressive for agreeing to let a daughter of the prestigious Frankenstein family study under him. Most thought he was doing it for the money. Jekyll was doing it because he was tired of living alone; he was ready, he thought, to teach someone and have someone under his care.

He arrived at the manor in Geneva with nothing except only enough food for two. 

Alphonse Frankenstein himself did not answer the door and neither did Caroline, his wife. He was much too wealthy for any of that. Instead, Jekyll was greeted by a young woman named Justine, who brought him into the parlor and set out tea for four. 

Alphonse and Caroline entered with an enormous deal of pretension, wearing finery of the highest degree. Not wanting to seem rude, Jekyll stood, his head bowed, and smiled at the two gently.

"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Jekyll," Alphonse said in accented English, a polite smile on his face as he shook Jekyll's hand. "And this is my wife," he said, gesturing to her as she curtsied to Jekyll.

"A pleasure, my lady," Jekyll said, nodding to her as well with a smile. He was a bit confused as to where the daughter was until the door opened yet again to reveal… 

Them.

The Frankensteins had evidently been greatly mistaken, Jekyll thought, for it was evident in the way that they carried themself that this person was not a daughter by any means. Their black hair reached long down their back, and it had clearly been expertly curled by someone what had taken quite a lot of time with it. The clothing they wore was dark and simple — a black blouse and skirt that would be more suited to a funeral than a first meeting — and they wore large round glasses that made their dark eyes seem even larger.

"Ah, there you are. This is my daughter—"

"A pleasure to meet you," Jekyll said, extending a hand to their child and giving them a firm handshake. Their expression was unreadable. 

"You are sure her studies must be conducted so far from home? We will miss her dearly," Caroline said. "She has a suitor, and a sister—we ought not take her so far away now."

"I assure you it will be fine," Jekyll said as the bags, brought down by a servant, were loaded into the back of the cab.

Alphonse nodded. "Clerval can wait until she returns from her studies. If we let her have her fun, she'll be a better wife to him. Less disobedient."

Jekyll watched as they tucked a lock of hair back behind their ear and pretended not to hear their father talking about them. Jekyll sighed sympathetically, wanting to comfort them, but instead he just took their remaining bags and placed them in the hansom cab. 

"We ought to be going now," he said. 

"Well. Say goodbye to your mother," Alphonse said. 

"Goodbye," they said in an obviously forced high-pitched voice. "And goodbye, father."

Without another word, no hugs goodbye, no tears, they got into the cab and sat down in a corner against the door, pulling a book from where it had been stashed in their skirts and starting to read. Jekyll tipped his hat at them as a casual goodbye and got in the cab as well, sitting down across from them and placing his bag on the seat beside himself. 

As the cab made a quick pace towards England, Jekyll looked up at them. "What's your name?" he asked. 

"You know my name," they said, their voice lower and darker than it had been mere minutes before. There was a tinge of anger to their voice that hadn't shown through before, decidedly sharp.

"Yes, I know that I know your name," Jekyll said softly, trying to appease them. "I just wondered if there was something that you preferred to be called, or if—"

"There isn't," they insisted, a slight waver to their voice that he hadn't heard before. "Leave me alone. I'm trying to read."

Jekyll didn't press it. He just sat opposite them, reading as the day dragged on and the cab pulled farther and farther towards their new home. 

At long last, they arrived, and Jekyll helped them from the carriage with ease. He noted with slight alarm how thin they were, and resolved to feed them well in the time they stayed here. He had his butler take their bags inside, then led them inside. 

“A few rules,” Jekyll said. “Tonight, you will rest, but starting the day after tomorrow, Poole will knock on your door to wake you at 6 in the morning sharp. We will dine together, you’ll take lessons with me, but other than that, I’ll leave you to yourself. If the matter of a doctor should arise, I have a friend who will tend to us both. It won’t happen very often, I should hope, if you care for yourself well.”

They nodded, looking around the house. Jekyll prided himself on living relatively simply, so it must have seemed out of the ordinary to someone used to extravagance.

“And of course, no more long hair or skirts.”

“What?” They turned toward him with a conflicted expression on their face. 

“They get in the way. Even if you put your hair up, it causes danger in the lab. You could set your skirts on fire, or your hair, and that would be the end of that. Trousers and short hair for you, my friend.”

They looked halfway between distraught and ecstatic. Jekyll recognized the expression—it was the very same one a close friend had worn many years ago when Jekyll had first suggested he go outside dressed properly, rather than who he had been before. The same fear, the same joy, the same uncertainty of whether or not it was truly safe to be this comfortable. 

“I’ll cut it for you tomorrow when you’re settling in, alright?”

“Um. Yes. Alright.” 

“Good. We value safety here. Now, I’ll help you bring your things to your room and you can go to bed for the night. Tomorrow I will help you settle in the rest of the way.”

They nodded and picked up their bag, then set it down again. “I suppose I won’t be needing any of the dresses, then,” they said, a note of excitement in their voice. “Or the skirts. I suppose I could just leave these packed. And put them away somewhere. And not look at them anymore.”

“I suppose you could,” Jekyll said with a grin. “I think my clothing might fit you. If not, it will suffice in the meantime.”

They bit their lip to hide a smile, picking up their remaining bag and walking up the stairs as if it wasn’t midnight and they hadn’t just travelled for a full day. It seemed that the knowledge that they would no longer have to suffer through skirts and dresses made them incredibly happy. 

Jekyll wandered upstairs to his room and found a few items of clothing that might fit them, then brought them into their bedroom and set them down on their bed where they were sure to see it. Jekyll watched as they returned to their room and saw the clothing, noticing how excited they seemed to be and the light that he had not yet seen on their face. He smiled, and returned to his room for the night.

The next morning, he came downstairs to find them dressed, the perfect pin-curls in their hair finally having fallen out to reveal its natural state. They sat at the breakfast table, politely waiting for him.

“I’ll take care of your hair today,” Jekyll said as they ate. “Then I can give you a short tour of the house, so that you won’t get lost. It’s quite large, and the laboratory is a separate building, so you may find yourself in need of a map at times.” He laughed. 

“And after that?”

“Then you may have the day to yourself, if you like. We can go down into town and sell some of your old clothing, perhaps. Or I can go myself and you can spend some time in the library.”

“There’s a library?” Their eyes lit up. “Oh, I would love that!”

Jekyll smiled at them. “Yes, just down the hall. If you like, that can be the last stop on our tour, so you can stay there while I sell your old things in town. How does the shirt fit, by the way?”

“Oh. It — it fits well enough.” Evidently it was slightly uncomfortable to discuss. Jekyll noticed, suddenly, that there was a flatness to their chest that hadn’t been there before. “Nothing is too tight or too loose.”

“Alright. I can use those measurements and buy you some clothing of your own, alright?”

They nodded. “Can you cut my hair first?” they asked eagerly, then pulled back. There was a physical change in their demeanor as they realized that they had overstepped their own boundary for acceptable behavior; their shoulders fell, they physically pulled away, and their head dropped down. 

“Of course I can,” he said, his tone comforting. “Now, if you like?”

“Please?”

Jekyll merely stood and walked towards the bathroom, a smile on his face. It was easy to see that they were excited about this. The excitement was so familiar, and he felt the same happy energy from them as he had from Gabriel so long ago. 

They sat on the bathroom floor demurely, like they were still wearing a skirt. Jekyll knelt down beside them, trying as hard as he could to focus in order to to make the cut even, but he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering back to the first time he’d done this. It had been many years ago, but the memory was still fresh like it had happened yesterday.

He missed Gabriel, he realized, and accompanying that realization was another — he  _ loved _ Gabriel. Of course, he should have known long ago, because it wasn’t common to marry someone that you don’t love, at least not anymore. It had hit him several times, but this time it was overwhelming. 

Blinking, he focused back on their hair. 

As soon as he had finished, they stood to look in the mirror. The smile that spread across their face was too big to hide, but they tried nonetheless, and smoothed it down with both hands before turning to face him. 

“It’s very… practical,” they said, still forcing back the smile.

“I’m glad you like it,” he said in reply. “Now, I think you can work your way around, you don’t really need a tour — you’ll find your way around on your own. You know your way to the library, yes?”

“I do.”

“Then you can go spend some time there while I run a few errands. I’ll be leaving in a quarter of an hour, give or take, and then you’ll have the house to yourself for an hour or so.”

They nodded. “I won’t burn the house down,” they said with a smirk, and ran off to the library. 

Jekyll watched them, dashing full-speed down the hallway. This seemed much more right to him — they were too reserved in front of their parents, too quiet, too hidden. Now they seemed much more comfortable by far. He felt a strange rush of pride for being able to bring out something that they’d been hiding. Maybe someday they would feel comfortable enough to tell him their name.

As he passed the library after picking up one of the valises of old clothing, he saw them, curled up in a large armchair by the fire with a whole pile of books sitting next to them. They kept running their hand through their hair and smiling. It was comforting to know that they were happy with it — he’d never taught a student before, and he knew his lab practices were uncommon. Jekyll stood at the door for a few more moments, watching the fire and the pages of the book and them, and he smiled.

— 

Two months of routine passed easily. They settled into an easy, quiet kind of family, the kind that you don’t notice until all at once it’s happened and you’re suddenly thinking of someone as your parent without even realizing it. 

Jekyll had bought them some new clothing, he’d continued upkeep of their hair, but they’d continued to wear skirts outside of the lab and to present as a woman. He watched them not speak unless spoken to, curtsy to everyone, keep their head down and be quiet. They looked absolutely miserable unless they were in the lab and working with him. 

He’d tried to convince them to dress for their own comfort rather than society’s expectations of them, but they refused. They actually tried to convince him that they  _ liked _ dressing that way, even if some . Of course, it was incredibly unconvincing, because they were obviously uncomfortable, but he didn’t push it. 

In two months, they had still not told him their name. They insisted on being referred to as a woman and by their old name; outside of the house, they would always refer to themself that way. However, sometimes Jekyll would slip up and refer to them as “he” or “they”, and only then would they look genuinely happy. He wanted desperately for them to realize that they were only hurting themself by acting like this, that this was unnecessary and unfair, that they deserved to be happy. They wouldn’t listen to it, though, he knew.

Several times a day, they would go completely silent and just go on with their day, entirely quiet. There seemed to be no particular trigger for it, they would just stop talking. He had tried to get them to talk, but they never slipped up — they seemed to  _ want  _ to respond, but they couldn’t. The impermanent muteness was never very long; at its longest it would only last about an hour. Though it was short, it was still upsetting, for both him and for them. 

During one of these phases, they were in the lab, putting away the supplies after he’d demonstrated a few different ways to combine and synthesize chemicals. They were silently reorganizing things, again and again, looking over the labels on the jars and bottles, a worried expression on their face. 

“Are you alright?” Jekyll asked, concern in his voice. 

They looked over at him and nodded. 

“You look a bit nervous. What do you say we take an early break and relax? You’ve been working very hard lately, you deserve it.”

They nodded again, pushing their hair back away from their face. A small change in their expression showed their voice was back. “I’ll go back upstairs and change, and then — ”

“No need. You haven’t done anything to mess up your clothing. No spills or anything like that. We can just go now, it’s quite alright.”

“Oh.” They pushed their hair out of their face again and followed Jekyll back to the library, where they sat opposite each other in the two armchairs. Jekyll picked up one of the books he’d been reading and settled in, watching them out of the corner of his eye as he did. 

They were sitting with their back against one arm of the chair and their legs over the other, their jacket wrapped around their shoulders, staring into the fire with unfocused eyes. This was a favorite position of theirs when deep in thought, which was evidently the case now. The open book in their lap was sitting, untouched, opened to a random page, and they continued to flick at one corner of the page as they looked out vaguely, seemingly not noticing they were doing it. 

“You have something on your mind,” Jekyll observed. It wasn’t a question. The observation, in fact, unquestionable. They always got that way when they were thinking about something deep. 

“I always have something on my mind,” they said, looking towards the fire. 

“I mean you’re thinking about something important. What is it?”

They shrugged and closed the book in their lap, putting it on the end table beside their chair. There was obviously something weighing on them, but Jekyll didn’t push it. Evidently they were under quite a lot of stress.    


“I think I’m going to bed early,” they said quietly, standing up. “I’m tired.”

“Alright,” Jekyll said. “Remember to wake up early tomorrow, alright? We’re going out to pick up lab supplies, so make sure to dress appropriately for that.” 

All of a sudden they turned around, eyebrows furrowed, tears in their eyes. They looked at him with an expression on their face that he just couldn’t place. All at once, they turned and ran upstairs, slamming the door to their room. 

Jekyll sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his hair so it stuck up. He stared out into the fire, repressing the urge to throw a book into the fire. A knock on the door called Jekyll towards the foyer. He sighed and opened it to see Gabriel standing at the door, looking up at him through his glasses. 

“Good evening, Mr. Utterson,” Jekyll said with a smirk.

“Please, don’t be so formal with me,” he said with a sigh.

“And why would you be calling on me so late in the day?” he asked, leaning on the doorframe. “It’s not… proper… for a gentleman of good standing.” 

“We have been married for eleven years, and you’re still flirting,” Gabriel said. “May I please just come in?”

“Go right ahead,” Jekyll said, wandering in towards the sitting room. He flung himself onto an armchair, stretching and leaning back over the arm of it like a cat. Gabriel sat down in the other armchair, both feet on the floor and his hands folded in his lap. He looked at Jekyll with mild disdain.

“So, what brings you to my humble abode?” Jekyll asked, grinning at him. 

“Stop with the pleasantries, Henry,” Gabriel said sharply. “We have an important matter to discuss.”

“Oh?” He stopped mid-stretch and sat back up, looking at him. “And what important matter would that be?”

“Your… protegé.”

Jekyll took a deep breath and sighed. “What about them.”

“Them?”

“Yes. For now.”

Gabriel nodded. “Well,  _ they _ are under a lot of scrutiny by the rest of the town,” he said. “I’ve heard gossip about who they are: whether they are your child, why they’ve suddenly arrived and hidden away in the house nearly all the time. You’re causing a lot of interest.”

“They’ve not gone outside,” Jekyll said. “How do any of them know about this?”

“Please. When they arrived, everyone was watching,” Gabriel said. “We need to do something about this.”

“What is there to do?” Jekyll said with a sigh. “They refuse to stop pretending they like those clothes, even when it’s incredibly obvious that they hate it with a passion. If you think that you’ll be able to convince them not to wear feminine clothing anymore, be my guest. Go ahead.”

Gabriel sighed. “Please just stop. They have the right to do whatever they want.”

“They’re hurting themself, Gabriel, they’re  _ actively _ hurting themself, and I can’t let them — ” Jekyll broke off, falling back into the chair and covering his face. He bit his lip and forced back a sob. “I don’t want to watch them do to do this, like you used to… you know. You used to do to yourself.”

Suddenly, Gabriel’s face changed. He looked over at the door, and Jekyll’s gaze followed, landing on them.

Their feet, bare, kicking against the floor as they stood at the door. Their glasses fogged over with tears. Their hands clutching at the fabric of their nightclothes, tears streaming down their face. Their lip trembling as they watched the two of them. Jekyll stood up and started to walk over to them, but they turned and ran as soon as Jekyll approached him. He reached out a hand, then let it drop, and closed his eyes against the tears.

Gabriel walked over, standing behind him, and gently put a hand on his shoulder. 

“You should sleep. I’ll meet you in your room, alright?”

Ordinarily, there would be some joke within his reach, a flirtation to make towards Gabriel. He did not say anything like that this time. Instead, he just nodded and let the tears roll down his face. 

— 

“Here. I’ve brought you some good clothes. We ought to get ready quickly, so that we can get to dinner before the rush.”

They opened the door slowly, taking the clothes and immediately retreating back into their room. Jekyll stood outside, dressed in his best for dinner with Gabriel. He’d invited them out for dinner as well, hoping that the two would get along as well as he had hoped they would.

“Must I go?” 

“My dear, you know that I have wanted you two to meet for some time,” Jekyll said, leaning back against the wall of their hallway. “Please. For me.”

They opened the door and smoothed back their hand with one hand, looking down at themself with a scowl. 

“I look ridiculous,” they said, staring down at their clothes. 

They did not, in fact, look ridiculous, at least not to Jekyll. Their cravat was tied wrong, certainly, but otherwise they looked the picture of a sophisticated gentleman. Everything they wore was new and in fashion, which added to the effect.

Jekyll adjusted their cravat and smoothed it down gently, nodding to them.

“Now. We’ll be late if we don’t leave now.”

They followed him downstairs, where Gabriel was waiting. He, too, was dressed impeccably — it was evident that this was infrequent, though, by the way he held himself. 

“He looks much nicer when he’s comfortable,” Gabriel said offhandedly, looking them up and down. They looked almost shocked at the usage of masculine pronouns; they gazed wide-eyed and enraptured up at Gabriel with an expression of pure gratitude on their face. 

“I don’t believe we’ve ever properly been introduced,” he continued. “I’m Gabriel Utterson. Your teacher’s husband.”

They laughed a bit. Then they stopped laughing. “Are you? Really?”

He nodded, glancing over at Jekyll for a moment. “You are familiar with the general facts of… things of this variety?”

“I think so,” they said slowly. “Though it is rare that I hear of an actual marriage coming to pass from it.”

“It is indeed rare,” Gabriel said with a laugh. “It is typically only reserved for those pairs who are a man and a woman… or those pairs who can easily pass as such in order to marry. If, in fact, one person had been born in a way conducive to those assumptions…”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” they said slowly, brow furrowed. “Do you mean to say that —” 

All of a sudden, it dawned on them. Their eyes widened and they stared up at him in wonder. 

Something changed in their face that showed another bout of silence coming on. Jekyll took a deep breath and headed for the door, then stopped and turned when he realized that neither Gabriel nor his protegé were following him. Instead, Gabriel was standing opposite them as they stared up at him with stars in their eyes. He watched as they mouthed something — “ _ you’re just like me. _ ”

Jekyll watched with pride as they threw their arms around Gabriel and pulled themself closer to him, burying their face in his chest. 

As soon as they had extricated themself from Gabriel, Jekyll opened the door and gestured grandly towards the streets outside. 

“Shall we?”

— 

The dinner went immensely well. The three of them passed several enjoyable hours at the house of one of Jekyll’s colleagues — they had neatly avoided introducing themself, as they had never actually decided on a name, but otherwise, the evening went perfectly smoothly. 

After they had arrived home, Gabriel tried to leave, but Jekyll insisted that he stay the night. 

That night, they retreated to their room early, leaving Jekyll and Gabriel alone in the parlor. 

“So,” Jekyll said, sitting on the loveseat and gesturing for Gabriel to join him. “Are you satisfied with this now? Is your curiosity about them satiated?”

“It is,” Gabriel said, stretching and leaning back in the seat. He looked rather tired, most likely from all of the socializing over the course of the evening. It had been incredibly stressful for him, since he was not often among other men, and neither of them were used to hiding their relationship. 

Gabriel had married him long ago, and they’d lied and said that he had become bedridden in order to avoid suspicion. He posed as his own brother in order to justify staying with Jekyll on occasion, and they had made do with that lie and quite a bit of manipulation. They had both been rather proud of it, actually, as it was quite a simple lie, yet it convinced everyone. 

Unfortunately, though, Gabriel’s rebuilding of himself had resulted in them needing to maintain a disconnect in public. They were friends, at least according to everyone else, and thus had to maintain a safe distance to stay in good standing. 

Through the whole night, they had barely been able to contain themselves; neither had been out in public for a long while, and adapting back to normal society was difficult. Jekyll kept almost reaching out and taking Gabriel’s hand, then thinking better of it and returning to his own chair. For a few moments during dinner, they had allowed their hands to touch under the table, and even that felt like sparks of magic flowing through his body. The separation had been almost too much for him to bear.

Jekyll looked Gabriel in the eye and stretched, long and slow, his eyes never leaving Gabriel’s all the while. He leaned back and let himself fall back across the entirety of the loveseat, his feet propped up on the armrest and his legs stretched across Gabriel’s lap. 

“You’re teasing me, Henry,” Gabriel said. 

“Oh, am I?” He smirked and leaned back even further, pulling the ribbon from his braid and slowly running his hands through his hair. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Henry.” His tone was a warning one, but the look in his eyes revealed that his little show had had a considerable effect. Jekyll was quite proud of himself — this didn’t often work on Gabriel. 

“What is it, my darling?” he said, his voice low and sweet. This was almost too easy; it appeared that going through a whole evening without touching was the key to success in endeavors of this manner. Jekyll smoothed back his hair with both hands and smiled at him, eyelids lowered. “Is there something… wrong?”

“Stop it,” he said, though the attempt at severity in his tone was pathetic. He’d been watching Jekyll’s hands with an inappropriate interest. 

“Stop what, darling?” He let one arm slip around Gabriel’s waist and was shocked by the warmth of his skin, almost feverish with heat. Gently placing one hand on Gabriel’s face, he noted with mild surprise that he was burning hot there as well. 

“You know what.”

“Oh my,” he said, letting his hand move down to Gabriel’s neck. He flinched at the touch, averting his gaze and trying with little success to hide the flush on his face. “You’re burning up. Perhaps you’re… coming down... with something.” 

“Stop it, Henry,” he said again, brushing his hand away. “You know we can’t — ”

“Why not?” he asked petulantly, biting his lip in a manner that he intended to come off as seductive. “No one is watching. You and I both know that it wouldn’t be the first time that we — ”

“Henry.” His tone was harsher now, sharper. It was enough to startle Jekyll into looking up. The expression on Gabriel’s face made his heart sink. “I can’t. Not now.”

“Of course,” he said, pulling away. “Of course.” 

Gabriel sighed, pushing back his hair with one hand. He refused to meet Jekyll’s eyes. 

“Are you alright?” Jekyll asked quietly, reaching for Gabriel’s hand. Gently, Gabriel took it, closing his eyes. He wanted to do something, anything, to comfort him — it made him too upset to see him like this. 

“You know what happens sometimes,” he said after a long silence. “I’m sorry. I know that you — ”

“Don’t apologize,” Jekyll said. “Please. You don’t need to.”

“But you wanted to — ” Gabriel looked back at Jekyll, the tears in his eyes sparkling in the firelight. “For a moment, it felt right. I thought that I would be able to — ”

He broke off, trying to compose himself. 

“Gabriel,” Jekyll said quietly. This, finally, caused the tears to spill. “It’s alright. It’s alright. I’m here.”

He reached for Jekyll, searching through the tears, and found him, pulling him in as close as he could. They sat, for just a moment, in perfect silence and comfort, and for just a moment, everything was alright.

— 

As the sunlight fell through the curtains, Jekyll blinked and sat up, looking around. For a moment, he did not know where he was, and then it came to him — the memories of the night before. He looked down to see Gabriel sleeping on his chest, his hands entangled in Jekyll’s hair. Seeing him there, at peace, happy, he could not help but smile. 

He felt incredible relief — a moment of peace, finally, among the chaos and the fear and the nightmare of life, a brief repose between the tension. Even now, as he tried not to wake Gabriel, he still felt as though he was asleep and dreaming. 

With a hand on his shoulder, he gently shook Gabriel awake; his face softened the moment their eyes met. They untwined themselves, sitting up on the couch and moving apart. 

“Good morning, my darling,” Jekyll said softly, kissing him gently and cupping his face with one hand. “How did you sleep?”

“Well enough,” he said, his voice still raspy from sleep. “And really? ‘My darling’?”

“You are my darling, are you not?” Jekyll said, pressing another kiss to his forehead. Gabriel rolled his eyes, but the small smile on his face gave away his true feelings. “Or would you prefer something else? My dear? My husband? My perfect Gabriel?”

His smile grew larger and he leaned his head back onto Jekyll’s chest, his breathing soft and slow. The morning was, so far, quiet. Simple. Perfect. Untouched by the rest of the world. Just the two of them, waking up together, not thinking of anything else but each other. 

“We ought to get up,” Gabriel said quietly. 

“Why? We’ve nowhere to go.” He ran a hand lazily over Gabriel’s back. “We can just lie here all day.”

“As nice as that sounds, we really can’t,” he said, sitting up and smoothing back his hair with one hand. “I’ll go get breakfast on, alright?”

“Thank you, my darling,” Jekyll said with a smile, laying back for a moment on the couch and looking up at the ceiling. His heart was full. It was such a perfect morning, such a perfect way to wake up, and he just wanted to bottle the moment and keep it close to his heart forever. If he could, he’d save every feeling he had at this moment and put them somewhere safe. 

He wandered up to the second floor and knocked gently on their door, waiting for a response. After only a few moments, they opened the door, fully dressed. They wore masculine clothing, though they had no obligations to go to the lab, and their hair was uncovered and combed neatly. A small smile spread across his face — they weren’t pretending anymore. This really was a wonderful morning. 

“Good morning,” he said to them cheerfully. They just smiled back and gently touched their lips, signaling to him that they could not speak right now. 

“I’ll meet you downstairs, then,” he said, and walked towards his room to clean up. 

The morning dragged on lazily, as mornings like that often did, and Jekyll spent most of it down in the laboratory, having started work on the fourth iteration of his formula a few days ago. He wanted to perfect it as soon as possible. 

Gabriel walked into the lab several hours later, holding a glass of water. “I thought you might need a break,” he said with a mock-casual tone. 

“Thank you,” he said, taking off his gloves. “Are you alright? You seem like you have something on your mind.”

“During lunch, your student told me that he wants to do what I did,” Gabriel said, taking a deep breath. “He’s wanted to for a while, actually, but he told me he was scared to tell you because he wasn’t sure if you would understand.”

Jekyll looked up at him. He wasn’t surprised, not exactly. He’d had a suspicion for a while, of course, and he’d tried to be as accommodating as he could. What he had been surprised about was that Gabriel was the person he’d chosen to go to about this, rather than himself. 

“Has he chosen a name?” he asked. Gabriel shook his head. “Well, we’ll have to help him with that.”

“Not today,” Gabriel said. “He’s been nonverbal since morning. I don’t think it’s a safe subject right now.” 

Jekyll nodded. “Do you know what triggered it?”

“I’ve no idea. I’m just trying to treat him normally — this is much too long for it to be a normal period of mutism. Honestly, it’s scaring me a bit.” 

“Should I go up and talk to him?”

“Not yet. Give it time, go about your day normally, and we’ll see if it passes.”

“Hopefully it will.”

It didn’t. He stayed silent for the rest of the day, and then for the next day after that, and then for the next day after that, too. Jekyll and Gabriel began to worry. The longest his silences had been up until that point were a few hours — this was several days. It wasn’t normal for him, and it certainly wasn’t normal for anyone else. He quietly went about his day, doing everything else the same as usual, except he was completely silent. As soon as the third day came and he was still silent, Jekyll began to worry that this might be permanent. 

It continued for a week. He was otherwise normal — no outward signs of upset, nothing to indicate anything else that was troubling him. The only difference was his complete and total silence. He wrote things out and got things across in other ways, but besides those rare occasions, he didn’t communicate with them at all. 

“I’m scared for him,” Jekyll said quietly, one evening when the two of them were alone. They had retreated to the parlor together after he had gone to bed, waving at them a silent ‘good night’. 

“Do you think we’ve done something wrong?” Gabriel said quietly, his head leaning on Jekyll’s shoulder. “With him, I mean. Do you think we said something, or we made him feel uncomfortable in some way?”

“I hope not,” Jekyll said. “I really, really hope not.”

“What if he never gets better? What if we keep trying, and helping him, and hoping that it will just go away, but it never does? What will we do then?”

“Don’t say that,” Jekyll said sharply.

“We can’t discount that as a possibility, Henry. You know that. We have to be ready if it does happen.” 

“ _ We _ don’t have to do anything.” Jekyll sat up and glared at him. “You keep talking like he’s  _ yours, _ like he belongs to you.”

“And you’re saying that he’s yours, then? He doesn’t belong to you either.”

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be protecting him! His father placed him under my care, and I’m going to make sure that he stays safe.”

Gabriel sighed and stood up. “If you want to be like that, then fine. You can keep on pretending that there’s hope for him, but someday you’re going to have to face the facts, and when it’s been a year and you’re still pretending he’s fine, then don’t come running to me!”

He stormed out of the room, towards the door at first, then back upstairs to the guest room he had been staying in. Jekyll collapsed onto the loveseat, putting a hand on his forehead. He had a splitting headache and he honestly thought he was going to cry. Gabriel’s voice kept ringing in his head.  _ What if he never gets better? _ He wanted to ignore it, to tell himself that it wasn’t true and that he was going to get better, but there was a tiny voice in the back of his mind that kept telling him that he couldn't be sure.

He glanced over at the door, hoping that he would come back and start talking again. For a few minutes, he waited and waited, hoping he would arrive, but he didn't. 

Jekyll sighed and stood, going to his door and knocking gently. He didn't answer.

"Hello? Are you alright?"

Again there was no reply. Jekyll began to worry, and pushed the door open, bracing himself for what he might see. Scenes of a collapsed body, a kicked-over chair, or simply nothing at all flashed in his head. Instead, however, he opened the door to find him, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands, staring out at nothing. His hands were shaking, Jekyll noticed. Nothing he had pictured before measured up to this.

“Please, talk to me,” Jekyll said, sitting down on the bed beside him and looking him in the eye. “I can’t see you like this anymore. I just need to know that you’re alright.”

He took a deep breath and looked at him, tears brimming over. His eyes were wide, framed entirely by the dark circles beneath and his long, dark lashes above. Piercing dark eyes stared deep into his and sent waves of emotion rolling over Jekyll. There was something about him that had changed, something deep and innate and unnameable.

They sat in his room for several more minutes this way. He did not speak. Neither did Jekyll. After a long silence, he took another deep breath. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, voice raspy from disuse. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Jekyll said, pulling him into his arms gently.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. It was all he could say. 

For another long moment, they sat. Jekyll ran a hand gently through the tangles of his black hair, already shot through with white, trying to comfort him as best he could. He leaned into the touch, closing his eyes and finally, finally allowing himself to relax. The setting sun fell on the floorboards in a long, thin stripe, just barely piercing through the black curtains, but still there.

— 

The weeks passed quickly — much too quickly for Jekyll’s liking. Soon, he would have to return to the Frankenstein household, where they would be expecting the daughter they had sent away, and he had not yet thought up an explanation for why their child had cut off all his hair and wore the wrong type of clothing. He had been hoping that they would not ask after him, but of course they did, sending him a letter which said in so many words that they expected him home for the holidays.

When the subject was broached, he insisted on staying for the holidays. It was evident that he was unready to return, just as Jekyll was unready to give him up. 

Though he knew it was wrong, he thought of him as his child now. Of course, he knew that it was ephemeral, and someday there would be a moment where he would part with him, have to send him back to his real family, but he wanted these moments they had left to last as long as possible. 

He thought it best just to set the letter aside and act as though he had never received it. Someday, they had to talk about the inevitable return, but for now they could pretend that he would stay forever. 

Neither of them mentioned leaving for several weeks. Jekyll didn’t bring it up and instead busied himself with decorating for the holidays, with gifts and with Gabriel. They had hardly left the house in the past few days, which had given Jekyll plenty of opportunities to retry what he had tried the night of the dinner party — and try he did, again and again and again. He tried, and he succeeded, nearly every time.

The success was incredibly satisfying.

The days passed quickly. Sooner than he’d expected, it was Christmas Eve, and he was sitting by the fire with Gabriel and watching as the snow fell outside, coating the landscape which could barely be seen through the darkness of the night.

Gabriel and Jekyll watched as he sat on the opposite chair, twisting his hands nervously. He had been unusually quiet for the past few hours. There appeared to be something on his mind.

“Victor,” he said quietly. 

“Sorry?”

“That’s my name. Victor.”

Gabriel smiled softly down at him, the firelight warming him so that a soft flush appeared on his face. “That’s very good,” he said simply, his hand finding Jekyll’s and pulling him closer. 

“Victor,” Jekyll repeated quietly. There was something strangely familiar about it, as though he had already known. He supposed that that was a good thing — it meant that the name fit him well. 

Again his mind went back to the past, to Gabriel and the first time they had found a name that he liked. There had been several weeks of struggling to find one that was just right. Nothing had fit, and they were about to give up when Jekyll had remembered an old school friend, someone he had met just once at university, and the matter had been settled almost instantly. 

What he had said then was what he said now. “It suits you.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading, and thank you to amy for being my wonderful beta reader. she is the reason this fic doesn't suck, haha. 
> 
> comments and kudos are very appreciated!!


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